Feature ArticleDecember 5, 2001
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Central Frontenac Council approves the Official Planby David BrisonThe Official Plan, which has been in the works since the summer of 1999, was passed by Council in the amount of time it took your reporter to step out for a minute. When I returned, Deputy Mayor Jack Nicolson told me that history had been made in my absence.
The plan was not, however, hastily conceived or passed without deliberation. The planning process started in the summer of 1999. An introductory public meeting was held on July 3, 1999. A Community Profile, based on a community survey, was released in January, 2000. A second public meeting was held in Mountain Grove on July 2, 2001, and Council considered the plan at several meetings and planning sessions.
The consultant hired by Council was Glen Tunnock from North Bay. There was general consensus that he did a good job at setting out the planning issues, and responding quickly and effectively to the wishes of the councillors and the public
The plan now has to be submitted to the provincial government for final approval, and will not take effect until that approval is forthcoming. The next step following approval will be for Council to enact a comprehensive zoning by-law as a means to further implement the general planning principles.
Planning documents are often ignored by the public until someone wants to build a house, convert a season residence into a year-round home, or start a business in what turns out to be a residential zone. They then find out that there is a set of principles that they didnt know existed. When that happens, people get around to reading the document.
Planning documents are indeed hard to read. They consist of a set of carefully worded definitions that are cross-referenced to a number of different planning topics. Central Frontenacs plan is well written, but is by necessity legalistic in tone and content.
There are, however, some key elements that stand out and are easy to understand. For instance, in the summary of the community profile, the vision for the municipality is described as, one in which there is slow but manageable growth which does not compromise the rural character of the area (low density development, friendly and safe) and preserves the amenities of wild and semi-wild natural environments. (p. 4)
Protecting the natural environment is featured throughout the document, but is highlighted in the concern shown for protecting the water quality of our lakes. The official plan has, for instance, limited new development on Silver Lake and the west basin of Sharbot Lake, which are highly sensitive trout lakes, to within 300 m (984 ft.) of the lake. No new lots are permitted within that zone.
In addition, new lots on lakes have to be a minimum of one hectare (2.47 acres), have a minimum frontage of 91 m (298 ft.), and create a ribbon of life of 30 meters where natural vegetation cannot be disturbed. Buildings cannot be in this zone. A nine-meter path can be cut though this ribbon for access to the water.
The reason for these restrictions on lake front development is the concern that lakes will undergo eutrophication with accompanying deterioration of water quality. Phosphorus which leaches into, or, in the case of malfunctioning septic systems, is directly dumped, is the main contributor to eutrophication. Elsewhere in the planning document, the authors point out that a growing trend in Central Frontenac is the conversion of seasonal residences on lakes to year-round homes. These conversions increase the load on septic systems, and if not watched closely can lead to deterioration of the natural environment of the lakes.
An interesting development that directly effects planning in a number of ways is that Central Frontenac is undergoing a population boom. The area had an average growth of 13.8% in the period from 1991 to 1996. Results from 2001 will not be available until the spring of 2002, but it is expected that the increased growth rates will continue. This stands in contrast to a growth of 5.6% in Frontenac County, and 6.6% in Ontario. There was a decline in Central Frontenacs population in the late 60s. The percentage of the working age population (20-54) shrunk then, and has not recovered since. However, what has happened is that the number of seniors has increased. The ability to attract seniors to the area is a resource, and the document outlines ways that this resource can be protected, and also, how services might be developed to serve this population.
Some predict that the increase in the number of seniors will last until 2015, when the last baby boomers will be retiring.
The overall tone of the document is conservative; that is, lets be aware of why many of us like to live here, and why others are moving in at a rapid rate. The challenge is to take steps to preserve that way of life, and at the same time create an economy that will provide jobs to the working aged, who are underrepresented in our population.I, like many others, dont typically read planning documents, but when I had to in order to write this story, I found that it was very thought provoking.
